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Friday, July 26, 2013

Recipe: Caramelised Onion and Beetroot Tarts

For Bastille Day we were also celebrating a birthday and had a long lunch with friends at our house. I wanted everything pre-prepared by the morning so I could relax and enjoy the time with our friends.

I made a cheese fondue (equal parts of gruyere, emmantel, cheddar with some champagne and tomato passata) served with baguette for starters (so 1970 but so delicious - forget about your thighs) and I also walked around with a platter of little individual beetroot and caramelised onion tarts then we sat down to a buffet of three roast chickens with lemon and thyme, a bbq'd butterflied lamb with rosemary and garlic, a baby spinach and roasted cherry tomato quiche, and my friends brought the salads.

this is the quiche I made

We finished the afternoon with coffees and my daughter made strawberries dipped in chocolate (her big Lindt Easter bunny that she hadn't eaten) sitting around our fire pit thinking how GOOD IS LIFE!

I posted a photo of the little beetroot tarts on Instagram and my facebook page and I got loads of requests to blog the recipe. My husband said it was his favourite dish of the whole day so I decided to make it again the next week. It's a little bit time consuming so one night when I was cooking dinner I boiled the beetroots and caramelisedthe onions. It's nothing to do this when you're already standing at the stove cooking the dinner. I then just stored the onions and beetroot in the fridge until I was ready to make the tart. And then the day I made it for dinner, I made three of them - one for us, one for our lovely neighbours across the road and one for a girlfriend and I completely forgot to take any photos of how it looks as one tart rather than individual tarts. Ha, sometimes real life and kids and work gets in the way of blogging! Oh well try it for yourselves and you'll see how delicious it is.

My inspiration for this recipe (for a whole tart) is originally from from The Australian's Women's Weekly BAKE book. This is one of my favourite recipe books (along with their COOK book). Everything in it turns out perfectly. I made quite a few changes to the recipe to use what I had on hand so I am blogging my version of it.

Recipe: Individual Caramelised Onion and Beetroot Tart

4 onions - you can use whatever colour you like - red, white, brown.

50g butter

Tablespoon brown sugar

splash of balsamic vinegar

4 beetroots, trimmed

Puff pastry (if you are making one big tart you will need one sheet, for individual tarts you will need 1 sheet for 4 tarts. I made 20 tarts from this recipe)

1/2 cup of basil leaves

1/2 cup olive oil (I always use extra virgin)

an ice cube

Caramelise your onions - peel, halve and slice your onions thinly. I use a food processor - saves so much time and teary eyes. Melt the butter in a frying pan and cook the onion gently over medium heat, stir occasionally. After about 30 minutes add in the balsamic vinegar and brown sugar. Cook for another 5 minutes until it's all caramel-ly brown. You can do this ahead of time and just store in a container in the fridge. Delicious on steak or sausages also.

Meanwhile boil, steam or bake your beetroot until tender. If you are baking, wrap in a double layer of tin foil. When it is soft through, cool, peel and slice thinly. You could also use well drained, tinned beetroot if you wanted.

For individual tarts, grease your tart tins (mine are gorgeous fluted ones. They were my mum's and I'm so glad to use them). Cut circles of thawed puff pastry (bigger than your tins) and press into each tin. If you are making a big tart, shape your pastry to how you want it (round or square) and place on a flat greased baking tray.

To make the Basil oil, blend or process the basil (or chives or whatever herb you have) with the oil and an icecube.

Layer a spoonful of onion topped with a slice or two of beetroot into each tart case.

Bake for about 10 minutes in an oven preheated to 220°C (200°C fan forced) or until pastry is golden. Drizzle on your herb oil and serve hot, warm or cool depending on your timing. All delicious.

If you make this leave me a comment as I'd love to hear how you like it. I love fresh beetroot but I just hate tinned! Are you a beetroot lover?Fiona x

IF you do the onion and beetroot ahead of time it's really manageable. And so delicious, everyone raved about them, you could use goats cheese sprinkled on the top also.

Phil's wurst arrived from the smokehouse this week. OMG it is divine. How did yours turn out?

Hope you are well. The last of your pretty flowers are on my kitchen window reminding me of our lovely catch up. You have to come here next time for lunch or something.Have a lovely weekend MaritaCheers Fi

I just baked this little tarts - amazing!! I made my own short crust pastry instead of packet puff pastry and sprinkled a little danish feta on top too. I think I have a favourite new appetiser! I've made these to take to work for a morning tea fundraiser - thanks so much - your recipe is helping BNCA support Australian women (and men) living with breast cancer! Thanks, Anne :)Adelaide